Deepmala Baswal_BLP062_Consulting_03Jan’12

Today’s consulting class was conducted after a long break and indeed it was an extremely interesting. It felt like we are doing a live consulting.  It started with a famous belief that there is a very small difference between winning and losing, merely 3-4 points. In Consulting, to be on winning side, it is required to write an effective proposal which can help you win a contract. Few points which need to be consider while writing an effective proposal are  - Stating the context very clearly which in turn decides the ultimate goals, asking the write kind of questions which defines engagement objectives, here over-riding question is very vital which can help client accomplish their aspirations and vision. All these helps in deciding the path from point of departure (current situation) to point of arrival (desired situation) and in turn final results are always linked to point of arrival.

 We also learnt about funnel approach to selling:

Prospecting -> Qualify Leads -> First contact -> RFP ->Proposal -> Negotiation ->Contracting -> Order won.

It is very important to ask client what their expectations from consultants are or what kind of assistance they are looking from consultants which can fill the gap from current situation to desired situation.

Also having a friend (coach) from client side is very helpful in consulting cases who sincerely wants you to win a contract.

Typically, Consulting assignments are of three types – Insight based, Plan based or Implementation based or a combination of these.  For instance, clients are looking for an insight, or in some cases they have insight but lack plan, so they want a plan or they have insight and plan both but need implementation program from consultants. Right kind of questions helps consultants to design their course of action and remove the hazy picture of client’s expectations.

We actually practiced the art of asking questions through one of the assignments given by Anil Sir which actually made all of us to think wisely and deeply. One interesting learning which I could gather was that in Consulting - “Think before you act” and if done wisely can help create a long term relationships with clients.